What Does a Document Do? Restoring Memory and Reinventing the Landscape for Masewal People in Mexico

Over the last 3 years, Alessandro Questa (PhD candidate, Anthropology and Mellon Indigenous Arts Fellow) has served as a witness and mediator between Masewal people and Mexican federal authorities during the process of restoration, protection, and reevaluation of certain local Indigenous documents from the 17th century. His experience navigating between different regimes of value and systems of knowledge led him to ask "what is a document and what can it do?"